


It's Funny How Things Turn Out to Be --Highschool AU--

by Tiger_Millionare



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Highschool AU, Lapis teases Peridot a lot, Peridot claiming to be a completely antisocial shut-in but acting the exact opposite, bullying and abuse mention, complete fluff, dangerous use of carrots and super glue, lapidot - Freeform, major accident with machinery, robot stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 13:26:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4962286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiger_Millionare/pseuds/Tiger_Millionare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[High School AU] Peridot has no friends or social connections outside of the robotics club, and she'd prefer it stay that way. What are friends anyway, other than complete wastes of time? Though with Peridot's luck, she can't avoid the friendship plague. Obviously some higher being enjoys watching her suffer because they place her with a much-unwanted roommate: Lapis Lazuli, a girl that is all too much what Peridot needs, to her own horror.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which Peridot has bad experiences with the color blue

One thing you'd always found funny, is that when you're an active member of the robotics club, spend all your free time studying or nose-deep in your laptop, and wear thick-rimmed glasses several inches too big for your eyes; you don't tend to have many friends. Or really any, in your case.

But the thing about friends, is that you're probably better off without them.

Friends are too much trouble. So high maintenance; with the whole, "always having to be there for them any time any place any reason" thing and besides all that takes away precious time from robotics and school. And then having to  _always_  hang out with  _only_  them and talk about meaningless occurrences in your lives to pass the time, just seems like a pain to you. Besides, you weren't exactly the most social butterfly.

You could never think of anything to say, and most conversations trail off into awkward silences. You'd just end up stiffly standing there wishing you could walk away, but then they were still there like they're waiting for you to suddenly transform into this incredibly amiable, social person. Obviously  _that_  wasn't happening anytime soon.

In all honesty, you couldn't stand talking to people in general. Well, save some of the members of the robotics team, as they were a group of equally anti-social shut-ins.

Outside of that, conversation was entirely loathsome. You hated it. And then the topic of your name always managed to rear its ugly head. Just another reason not to meet new people. "Oh really?" they'd say, in their sing-songy squeaky little voices that make your head want to implode, "Peridot? Like the birthstone?"

You'd given the little shpeel so many times, it'd practically become a scripted response of yes, like the birthstone. And no, you technically _aren't_ a peridot, but your parents thought you were going to be. Yet for some implausible reason, you'd naively decided to enter this world two weeks early. You suppose you can't blame your baby self, though; she didn't know what it was like out here.

Your appearance also liked to worm its way in on the rare occasion you aren't wearing your favorite over-sized green sweater and ratty jeans combo. Apparently, you were what normal people would consider "pretty", or so you'd been told by a handful of obnoxious chatty girls who wouldn't know reality if it hit them with a semi-truck. You'd always marveled at how they'd managed to reach  _that_  conclusion, because you're more than a little on the short side (not even reaching a full five feet in height) and didn't pay attention to your appearance most of the time besides.

Most days, you couldn't care less about what you looked like. You don't even waste the effort of brushing your hair in the mornings, and usually just sort of pat down your oddly shaped blonde rat's nest. If you're in a good mood or going to a robotics competition or something, you may take a comb to it. Though your hair usually finds a way to re-tangle itself by the end of the day.

You moved a tentative hand to it, poking down one of the many loose strands. Sighing, you flicked the computer mouse in front of you and watched as robot design plans flashed onto the screen.

You'd been unproductively staring at the little animation the computer played when it went to sleep for the past ten or so minutes, which wasn't the best way to spend your time but honestly, you were kind of done with trying to deal with the design software. The robotics lab had updated the program, and although it was almost exactly the same as the old one; some genius had decided to change all the icon pictures, so it was taking you forever to find everything. You'd kind of given up and zoned out a while ago.

This particular project had been sucking your time away for a few years now, and outside of build season (two hectic months the robotic's club's given to build a bot for this big competition thing) you find yourself working long hours on it.

You've come to call it affectionately a "robonoid", and it's main purpose is to move. That's pretty much all it's supposed to do. Though at the moment, it can't even do that very well.

You're onto your seventh attempt at creating an actual, operational physical model.

Though you think the bot's more than worth the hours upon hours you've spent on it. It's not just moving, but  _how_  it's moving that's something worth mentioning on any prestigious college application. You designed it to use electromagnets to support itself on four cylindrical legs, all while keeping it's body essentially free-floating. This results in flawless turns and rotation abilities on the robonoid's part.

You jerked up suddenly as someone lightly tapped your shoulder. "W-what?" you spat, though you sounded more surprised than you did irritated.The person who so rudely interrupted your daydream retracted her hand quickly, wrapping it around a clipboard held tightly to her chest. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you--" Pearl began.

The person who so rudely interrupted your daydream retracted her hand quickly, wrapping it around a clipboard held tightly to her chest. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you--" Pearl began.

"What is it, what do you want? I'm kinda busy if you hadn't noticed," you interrupted. Pearl's expression hardened immediately at your blunt comment, and she retorted snidely "Yes, of course you are. I was just doing inventory, and couldn't find one of the batteries. Any ideas as to where it may be?"

You shook your head and started to speak but Pearl cut you off mid-word, "Of course you wouldn't. You've been in front of your screen all day, again. Really Peridot, are you ever planning on finishing this project? I haven't seen you make any sort of progress on it in quite a while... Do you need any help? If you're stuck somewhere, maybe I can--" 

"No of course not! In fact, I'm so far ahead I was thinking about going home early." you said quickly, without thinking. Which was really stupid, because now you had no choice but to leave. Otherwise Pearl'd definitely say something. Great, that was just perfect. Because despite what you'd said, you actually  _did_  have a fair amount of work left.

Reluctantly shutting down your computer, you grabbed your backpack and marched indignantly from the room.

The air outside held the frigid bite of mid-September, and an array of goosebumps settled into place on your knuckles. Wonderful, that was the last thing you needed to think about; the looming threat of cold weather.

You cupped your hand around your mouth at a slight yawn as you began the walk home. You were way too tired for this early in the evening, and definitely not looking forward to the long trek back to the girl's dormitory. It was at the very North of the side, and the farthest building from the robotics lab (just your luck). The building itself was set apart from everything rather nicely though, as it sat on a fairly steep hill that sat above the rest of the campus. It was backed by the thick black metal fence that bordered the school on all sides, and beyond that was the small two-lane road that led to the nearby town.

There was definitely a good amount of distance from the dorm and the rest of the school, so you couldn't really complain. The isolation was nice.

It had once been a unisex dorm; the top half being girls and the lower boys.

But there'd been an "incident" your freshman year that'd made the school separate the two groups, involving a snake escaping into the girls dorms. This unfortunate event had led to the discovery of not only the reptile's quirky owner, but the multitude of hidden cameras he'd placed all around the upper floors under the pretense of "revealing the sneople and their diabolical schemes". No one had believed him obviously, but he got away with a mere detention because most of the cameras were only in hallways or light fixtures. They weren't even well positioned, and all they could see were the array of roaches that'd met their fateful end against the light bulb.

You only knew all this because you'd been called to the principal's office with the weirdo, because you'd happened to be the one to finally step up from the crowd of squealing teenagers and throw the snake out a window. The boy'd given you all kinds of suspicious looks while you were waiting for Principal Dewey.

After that, they'd decided it best to keep the boys and girls separate.

You heaved a sigh of relief as you stepped off the dew-laden grass and onto the thin line of concrete that surrounded the dorm. Your breath was slightly uneven from the ascent, as walking to and from the dorm was about the only exercise you got. The main hall was empty, and you only passed by a couple girls, whispering about something or other, on your way up the stairs to your home on the second floor.

Twisting the knob to your dorm room, you walked inside and slid the door shut behind you. Something felt different about the air of the room, something out of place. You didn't care enough to look into it though, and decided to shrug the feeling off. You'd probably just left the heater on or something unimportant like that.

You yawned again, rubbing your eyes with the back of your sleeve. You normally weren't this tired, especially at this time. Maybe it was the odd early darkness that came with the beginning of fall, or maybe you'd finally reached your breaking point.

You needed to splash some water on your face or something.

You clicked the bathroom door open, and all traces of drowsiness immediately fled from you as the girl inside shrieked, covering her chest hurriedly with both arms. Your mouth went dry, a mix of shock and confusion settling in the back of your throat. Why...was there a strange girl in your bathroom. And why wasn't she wearing clothes.

You hadn't realized you'd set your eyes in her direction during your internal breakdown until she awkwardly grabbed a towel from the side of the shower and wrapped it around her torso; a wild blush flooding her face, framed by locks of wet hair.

How had you not heard the water running.

You didn't say anything, couldn't think of anything  _to_  say, just backed out and closed the door. Stiffly turning around, you marched almost robotically to your bed, flopping onto it in a heap.

What had just happened. You couldn't seem to wrap your mind around it. Instead you occupied yourself in studying the various marks and scratches on the wall by your bed. A part of the paint was chipping, and you reached out and tore off a piece. Rolling it between your fingers, you again attempted to comprehend what you'd just walked in on. You'd have to face the girl eventually, and you didn't need to be a spluttering mess when you did. You decided to start with what you knew.

Fact : there was a girl in your bathroom.

Fact : you knew she attended school here. Once you'd been able to think somewhat clearly you could remember seeing her in Chem class. So she wasn't some criminal or stalker or something.

Fact : there were two suitcases and a duffel bag you'd failed to notice stacked neatly on the previously untouched bed across from yours.

And she'd had the key to get in. She had to have gotten that from somewhere. And right now, you were more than very upset with that somewhere.

You'd had an agreement with him: no roommates, ever. Under any circumstances. You'd told him, you'd  _told_  him about your personal space issues. As well as the claustrophobia and social anxiety. And if you were triggered by any of these, you were highly prone to anxiety attacks. He'd agreed to let you dorm alone because of that. Yet here you were with another girl, whose stuff lay all over your other bed and who was currently locked in your bathroom.

As if on queue, you heard the water-stained doorknob squeak as the door inched open. The girl walked out hesitantly, this time fully clothed in bright blue pajamas. She made her way into the room slowly, closing the door behind her but keeping a hand on the knob anyway, as if it were a lifeline.

"So, umm..." she trailed off, fidgeting with the top button of her shirt. "Yeah," you responded in your almost cracked but incredibly uncaring voice. You tried to give the word a note of irritation, but you were finding it oddly difficult when your eyes kept wandering to her bright blue pupils. In your brief glimpse you'd gotten earlier (which you were very much trying to forget), you hadn't really looked at them. The seemed to run like a river across her eyes, pooling in the centers which were flecked with sea-foam green. They were the weirdest eyes you'd ever seen, and you were almost certain she was wearing contacts.

"Okay, look," you breathed irritably, "I don't know what your plan is, or what you've been told, but I don't share rooms with people. Ever." You poked your glasses up the bridge of your nose, rising from the bed but not taking any further action.

The girl flinched a bit as you stood, her freckle-flecked face contorting slightly at the sudden movement before being forced to fall into a more relaxed expression. She tucked a stray strand of blue-dyed hair behind her ear.

"Um I, sorry. But, I don't really have anywhere else to go...I hadn't realized you didn't know, or didn't want me here. But Professor Universe said you'd be okay with it..." she trailed off, turning her gaze to the single window in the room, in an attempt to break eye contact.

"Why can't you go back to your own dorm?" you asked stupidly, knowing full well that of course, there was some reason she'd been kicked out. Though you couldn't seem come up with any plausible reason as to why this one single student was suddenly being relocated.

"You haven't heard?" her eyes darted towards you for a moment to give you a puzzled look, "There was some animal, I think it was a raccoon or something, that got trapped in the walls on the upper floors and did all kinds of damage. When they tried to have it removed, they found a bunch of safety hazards in the structural support. No one's allowed up until it's fixed, everyone had to leave. They made us take all our stuff and stand on the grass outside for a couple hours, and no one knew what was going on. Then they told us that we were going to share the dorms with the students down here for a while. I guess the bottom floors are all fine because of all that remodeling they did a few months ago.

You gave an indignant grunt. Why should you care? Whatever problems these people on the upper floors had, they could deal with them themselves. Everyone on the lower floors shouldn't have to get involved. Couldn't they all just sleep in the gym or something? You'd done that once (long story), and it hadn't been  _that_  terrible.

But of course, the teachers wouldn't make the students do that. It wouldn't be "fair" or whatever (like overcrowded dorms were much of an improvement).

"Why can't you go somewhere else down here?" you shot nastily. "There's no room," she began in a quiet voice, "Everywhere else is so full they're worried about fire safety. They couldn't figure out where to put me, and Professor Universe said that here would be fine, because your room was kind of--"

"Please, just stop." you interjected blandly, "I can't stand to hear your whiny little mumble for the next half hour as you over-explain something that should only take two sentences." The girl's face fell at this, and her lips twisted slightly in an almost hurt way. You felt kind of bad now for being so blunt. It wasn't her fault she didn't have anywhere else to go, and if it was just some simple repair work it couldn't take more than a couple weeks, right?

"Aaaaugh, I can't believe I'm doing this. Okay, fine. Stay," you groaned unpleasantly.

The girl bobbed her head in a nod, "Thank y--"

"Don't thank me, I'm not doing it because I feel sorry for you. I'm letting you stay because if I don't, I'll have Universe nagging me about regulations and compromises and whatever. So the second  they finish that repair work, you're out. And if they don't soon, you'll just have to find somewhere else to stay."

"It's supposed to only take a couple weeks," she nodded again, her shoulders noticeably unwinding with relief at finding a definite place to sleep. She'd been so eager for your "approval" to the point that she was actually stressing out. How annoying.

This girl was so passive you were almost driven to nausea. She seemed exactly like one of those oh-so-sweet and perfect quiet girls who integrated themselves with the noisy, popular groups just to feel like they were a part of things. Those types of people that just follow others their entire lives without having an independent thought the whole time. She didn't get anything above barely average grades in Chemistry either, so she didn't even have intelligence going for her.

"What's your name?" you asked blankly, falling backward onto the quilt spread across the worn mattress you'd had since you were a kid. "It's Lapis. Lapis Lazuli," her voice came from the bed on the other side of the room. It sounded silently forced, as if she wanted to get this whole thing over with as soon as possible and stop talking to you. You could find yourself relating.

"Like the birthstone?" you questioned, holding back a small sense of irony. You could almost feel her bobbing her head, nodding in that almost dizzy way that made it seem as if her skull was going to go flying off her thin neck at any time. "Yeah," she said as if she'd answered the question a million times before.

It was going to be a long two weeks. 


	2. In Which Peridot Becomes Familiar with the Concept of Begrudging Acceptance

The annoying blare of your alarm bloomed to life in a series of brain-piercing shrieks, earning a muffled groan from you. You groped around your bedside table,  but all you managed to do was knock your green-tinted glasses to the floor; almost doing the same to your lamp two seconds later.

The alarm wasn't stopping, and the insistent beeping had started rattling around the inside of your skull in a rather unbearably obnoxious way.

You groggily slid your eyes open, slowly sitting up and blinking around in search of the annoying contraption. It was marginally harder to see anything without the aid of your glasses, and turned searching into a game of guessing what this or that blurred object was. It turned out that somewhere in the night, you'd managed to knock the clock into the incredibly small crack between your bed and the table, and you had to fish it out with your Spanish textbook.

You finally slammed your fist on the "off" button with rejoiceful relief, so hard you were surprised the clock hadn't shattered. Your silent celebration was interrupted by a small murmur and the sound of someone rolling over. Your heart raced in a second of confusion before you remembered your all-too-unwanted but entirely  _mandatory_ "guest".

You turned your gaze in her direction, scowling a bit as you did so. Lapis was sleeping with her back to you, the old comforter you'd dragged out of the back of your closet pulled almost over her head. She was curled in a tight ball, her blue hair splaying out in every direction across the pillow.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket (you realized suddenly that you hadn't bothered to change last night before crashing), the contrastingly bright screen revealed an urgent text from Pearl. You let an irritated groan hiss through your clenched teeth.

The mandatory weekly morning class (it was more of a meeting, really) had started half an hour ago, and Pearl was (quite passive-aggressively) asking why you were late.

Cursing under your breath at failing to realize how late it was, you haphazardly threw your binders into your backpack and stumbled out the door. Figuring with Lapis there, it would be safe enough to leave the room unlocked, you raced down the stairs and out the main door. You would have run the rest of the way, but it was really cold and not worth the effort.

Two hours later you found yourself sprinting to second period. The meeting had run way over and you'd completely missed your fist class, you didn't need to miss your second as well. You ran through the hall, taking the stairs two at a time. Rounding a corner, you suddenly came into contact with something and was sent flying backward, landing harshly on the ground.

You hadn't seen Lapis coming and had run into her at full speed. You stood up and brushed the dust from your pants, hesitating a second as Lapis slowly climbed to her feet. "Oh, hello Peridot," she said, rubbing the back of her head with the palm of her hand. 

You were bound speechless for a moment. You'd just knocked this girl over and instead of getting upset, or even  _saying_ anything about it, she'd just acted as if you were passing each other in the hall.

"Hey," you replied quickly after a couple seconds, voice still ragged from running, "I thought it was second period." Your voice was critical, but Lapis seemed unfazed.

"I have study hall. I was on my way to the library actually...what about you?" she asked with the stiff politeness she seemed to coat her every word in.

"I have to get to class," you said frantically, desperation creeping into your voice. "I'm late," you quickly explained, grabbing your bag off the floor and bolting in the direction of Calculus. Lapis mumbled something as you ran off. You couldn't quite hear her, but you thought it might have been a goodbye.

Math, as per usual, was horribly boring. It's not like you didn't get it or anything, in fact, you were so good that the slow-paced lessons held limited interest to you and rarely taught you anything you didn't already know. You always aced every everything and read all the content in advance, so you were top of your class. And you were close to never late, so when you slid into your seat at the back of the class the teacher didn't even waste the time of giving you a second glance.

You were out of the classroom the instant the bell rang, swiftly making your way through the mostly uncrowded hallway so you wouldn't be there when the torrent of students poured from their various classes.

You'd almost managed to escape when someone caught hold of your arm, dragging you out of your thoughts. Flinching, you spun around warily, relaxing to find it was only Universe.

"There you are Peridot, could you wait a second?" His tone held a note of earnesty rare for him. Normally he was loud and eccentric in his words and actions, no doubt one of the many reasons he was the most popular teacher in the school.

_Professor_ Universe (" 'Mr.' seems so formal, and I'd really like it if you could all just call me Steven, but Principal Dewey says that's unprofessional. 'Professor' is a lot more interesting and important-sounding than 'teacher' or 'Mr.' anyway, so let's go with that.") was technically the vice-principal of the school, but insisted on teaching classes so he could "get to know the students better". And since this was technically a private school, he could get away with that sort of thing. Universe was always smiling, and kind of quirky really, but you didn't really  _dis_ like him.

He was odd and about as far from an actual teacher as one could get. His hair was always a mass of black, tangled curls and though no one knew exactly how old he was, Universe was short enough to be a few grades under you and had a tendency to act rather childish.

"About Lapis..." he spoke like a polite kid trying to spare someone's feelings might, "I know you have problems with being around other people, but I wouldn't have asked you to do something you weren't okay with unless the situation was this...bad...you know about the problems with the upper floors right? Everything's so overcrowded most students have to share a room with three or four other people. So really, you got off pretty lucky.

"And I think living with Lapis could be good for you! I never see you talk to anyone, and living by yourself isn't doing much to help that," he concluded, releasing your arm.

You gave a slow nod, not really in the mood to try and argue with him. Besides, you doubted you could get very angry anyway with his naively innocent face, filled with concern.

"Yeah, sure," you said, voice a dead monotone. He gave you a worried look, but said nothing else as you turned and made your way through the crowded hall.

* * *

 

You had your laptop set precariously on your crossed legs, an empty word doc glaring up at you. You'd been sitting like this for the past twenty minutes, typing and erasing and willing your computer to magically conjure up an essay. So far, it hadn't been working too well, but you hadn't given up hope yet.

Lapis floated in, hovering awkwardly in the door frame. Her shoulders were slumped forward, her eyes dull and ringed with dark circles. "Hey," she muttered tiredly. Though her voice held obvious fatigue, it still felt uncomfortable and reserved.

"Hnnn," you grumbled in response. Resolving to finish your essay later, you opened the most recent design for the robonoid.

"They," Lapis began, "They said it shouldn't be more than a week, maybe two or three at most, until people can start moving back upstairs..."

"Fine. As long as you're out of here soon," you said offhandedly, your attention unwavering from your laptop. Lapis huffed, but didn't say anything to your blatant response.

Sighing, she stiffly made her way to the bathroom. You could hear running water behind the closed door, and the soft hum of Lapis muttering to herself. You couldn't make out exactly what she was saying, but she didn't sound overly happy. You were pretty sure you were the source of that.

Oh well. Let her complain. You were going to act how you wanted, it was your dorm after all. If she wanted any form of warm reception she could go somewhere else.

You'd managed to contribute a few meager sentences to your failing attempt at an essay when Lapis came back out. She took in a sharp breath, drawing a side-glance from you, pinching the bridge of her nose as she exhaled.

"Look," she said bluntly. Her tone was so annoyed, so decisive you hardly recognized it as her voice at all. Now, having your full attention, you turned to face her, lips parted in slight shock. You hadn't taken Lazuli as the assertive type at all. It was definitely a drastic change from her normal modest timidity.

"I don't want to be here either. Trust me on that," she let out a small hiss of a chuckle, "These last few days have been absolutely miserable for me. If I could have gone back, gone somewhere else...I would have. And I'm sorry, but I can't.

"And the more,  _unpleasant_ , you are about all this, the worse it's going to be for both of us. So can you try to be a little more positive, maybe?" she finished, her last few words shifting back to a quieter, more submissive tone.

But still, her outburst had caught you off guard. Mostly, you felt annoyed. What right did she have to talk to you like that? When  _she_ was the one intruding on  _you_?

A very small part of you did, actually, feel a little bad for driving her to the point of being so irritable. And, you  had to admit, you hadn't exactly been the nicest to her.

But for the most part, you wanted to snap back at her. To get really angry and defensive and let her know she had absolutely no right to criticize how you talked to her. But the small part of you that felt the tiniest smidgen of remorse had managed to claw its way down the back of your throat, making it impossible to speak.

So you just nodded. As soon as you did, her shoulders unwound and her rigid posture softened into a sort of half-slump. You hadn't noticed until she'd relaxed, but Lazuli had been tense throughout the whole ordeal.

"Thank you," she breathed, barely above a whisper. Turning, she sat neatly on the bed across from yours. "Yeah," you responded pathetically.

_What just happened_. Any traces of shame you may have felt were swallowed up in an angry cloud, reproaching you for letting her get away with mouthing off to you. This was  _your_ dorm, and she was lucky that you'd been nice enough to let her stay here thus far. She should be  _thanking_ you for putting up with her this long, not complaining about your attitude.

And then you'd just gone and let her walk all over you.

You couldn't leave it like this, not when she'd had the last word. You opened your mouth, ready to shout at her and get really pissed and kick her out, but the only thing that came out was "So, uh, what classes are you taking?"

The look of sheer surprise on her face almost matched your own internal shock. Where had that come from. Even though you were desperately anti-social, even  _you_ realized how awkward that sounded. Not to mention it was not what you had intended to say in the slightest.

"Oh, uh..." Crap she was answering. Why'd you ask such a stupid question you dolt, now you'd have to have a "conversation" with this clod. And how on earth were you going to respond when she answered? 'Oh yes, okay those sure are some classes'

"You really want to know?" she asked curiously, taking you off guard.You shrugged, "Sure, I guess."

You shrugged, "Sure, I guess." You turned back to your computer screen, but keeping a careful eye on Lapis through your peripherals. You refused to make direct eye contact in a failing attempt at recovering your nonchalant attitude.

But she had her gazed turned towards the wall across the room, and didn't seem to notice. "Well, there's Algebra, Literature, World History, Chemistry..uh, well, I guess you knew about that one...and..." her face suddenly lit up, and you felt heat rush to your ears.

"Oh! I have swimming too, you know instead of PE. I really like that, and I'm pretty okay at it too. Actually, last year we won regional. But then, when we got to state..."

She ended up talking nonstop about swimming for a little over an hour, and as much as you would have loved to tune her out, to just put in your earbuds and finish your essay, you ended up listening to every word.

 


	3. In Which Jasper Discovers the Negative Effects of Shaving Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robots, shaving cream, and short bored nerds are scarcely a good combination on the best of days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Admittedly, a rather short chapter.

Two weeks later and they still hadn't finished the upper floors. There was a rumor floating around about some moldy beam they'd found and that it didn't meet whatever safety regulation the school was bound too. And seeing as the top floor's framing was completely wooden, and thus could also get moldy, they'd decided to completely redo the entire upper half of the dorms.

And that was going to take a while. Judging by the vague estimates from the school and the workers, it was going to be a long while. Which was just your luck, naturally.

Lazuli had seemed warmed up to you, if only a little. She was still frosty most times, and after her outburst had had no qualms whatsoever vocally complaining about you and your various mannerisms.

Although from time to time you'd find that if asked the right sorts of questions, she could be something akin to pleasant company. You also soon discovered that when prompted as such, she tended to be a bit of a chatterbox. And horribly enough for you, most of your questions seemed to be the right sort.

Another week passed uneventfully, and there was still no news on when you would get your dorm back to yourself. You honestly didn't think they were even working on refurbishing the top floor, you hadn't seen anyone going up there in days.

There was, however, a silver lining to all this in that you'd finally managed to complete a mostly operational prototype of the robonoid.

It'd taken a few weeks of metal bending and yelling at the in-school 3D printer to stop being a useless clod and get it's shit together, but you'd finally done it.

You'd even had time and material to add some additional features once you'd had the general base of the thing worked out. There was now a spray nozzle of sorts on the front (you'd  _wanted_ to put a tazer on it, but the robotics instructor had caught you and made you take it off. Apparently it was "inappropriate to use school equipment to make a weapon" or something like that. He'd suggested that it could be used as a mobile fire extinguisher instead, which you honestly thought was a stupid idea. You vocalized your thoughts on this. That didn't go too well, and you ended up having to sit through some godawful lecture on how much materials alone cost to make the thing, not to mention the machinery expenses, and that you shouldn't be wasting so much of the school's budget on some random gadget that just wanders around like a deranged circus monkey).

So you'd added the nozzle.

But then when you'd tried filling it with the extinguisher in the cafeteria, you'd been given detention by the assistant principal for "misusing safety equipment". Which was even more stupid you'd said, because you were technically trying to make a piece of safety equipment yourself. This had earned you an extra week of confiscated lunch periods.

So now your robonoid was filled with shaving cream. Close enough. It was fluffy and white and smelled horrible, so really it was practically the same thing.

It'd taken you a while to adjust the controls on the robot (you didn't exactly specialize in mechanical programming. You were more into websites and firewalls and that sort of thing.), so there were more buttons than was completely necessary. It also wobbled a little too much when it walked, but at least it was walking at all. It could even reach a pretty decent speed without falling over.

You didn't want to spend time making final adjustments until midterms were over however, so most days you just sat there staring at it, bored out of your mind. You'd tested it hundreds of times over any surface you could think of (finding out the hard way that it wasn't very good at climbing things, even though it managed slopes pretty well). You supposed you could take it outside, test it on the ground out there.

But there were complications that came with that as well. As soon as anyone saw it they'd be all over the thing, touching it with their oily fingers and asking if they could have a go driving it. Then somebody would end up breaking something, and it'd take hours to fix.

Despite the glaringly negative cons, you debated the idea for a while. Finally boredom won out and, grumbling at how terrible an idea this was, you picked up the large cardboard box containing your creation and made your way outside.

The sun was overwhelmingly bright and you had to shield your eyes with your forearm, even then having to squint your eyes. Yet despite the sun's rays boring through your retinas, it was still loath-ably cold outside.

You griped irritably at the sun which obviously wasn't doing its job well enough. Now see this is why you avoided going outside. You missed the warm, dark cave of computers and machinery already.

Well, you were already out here. And at least it was mildly more entertaining than sitting and staring at a motionless robot for the next few hours.

Pushing your glasses up the bridge of your nose, you began the trek downhill to a small grassy patch behind the English and History wing you knew would be fairly deserted. That hopefully meant there wasn't much of a chance anyone'd bug you.

You made your way around the side of the building, glad when there didn't appear to be many people left to notice what you were up to. You'd almost turned the corner when you were stopped short by a gruff, menacing voice.

You froze, sparks of fear trailing their way up and down your spine and making your scalp itch. But when the person continued without pause, you realized they weren't actually talking to you. The source of the voice seemed to be coming from somewhere behind the building and, against all better judgment, you let your curiousity push you to slowly peaking out around the corner.

A tall, brutish girl with wild, tangled hair that nearly touched the ground stood not ten feet away from where you were pressed against the wall. She had a devilish, almost pleased smirk on her face and seemed to be talking to, no, she was definitely  _threatening_ whoever was in front of her. The girl's gravelly voice cut through your spine like a cold blade, and you were immensely glad you were here instead of on the other side of her raised fist.

Though you were a little curious as to who the unfortunate soul in that position was.

Carefully leaning out as far as you dared, you had to bite your lower lip to keep from gasping. Lapis stood with her hands clenched in nervous fists, arms clamped hard to her sides. The brutish one had a meaty paw clasped around the fabric of the collar of her shirt and was pulling her up with enough force that Lapis's heels just barely hovered above the ground.

"J-Jasper, please," she gasped desperately, her voice bone dry, "I-I swear I didn't tell anyone! Somebody must have seen last time that this...that you..." Lapis trailed off helplessly, too choked with desperation or fear to finish.

"And I'm supposed to buy that? Stop making excuses. We were alone, and no one comes back here who could have seen us.

Jasper's face hardened, her smirk curling her face into a cruel mask, "Maybe if you admit you snitched, I might only break one of your arms." She paused, presumably for dramatic effect. "It's up to you. Gonna fess up or what?" she snarled cruelly, spittle flying from her cracked lips as she spoke.

Lapis looked so defenseless, so frightened. Why didn't she just admit whatever it was Jasper was bugging her about? Even if she hadn't snitched, it'd be way easier to lie and definitely a lot less painful.

Lazuli seemed to be debating whether she should give in to Jasper or not. That should've been a no-brainer, at least in your mind. She seemed to come to some sort of decision. Good, finally came to her senses. Took her long enough. Though you couldn't quite ignore the uneasy feeling that began to wash over you.

Swallowing nervously, she peeped, barely above a whisper, "I told you, I didn't."

Your mouth fell open slightly.

Jasper's face contorted with frustration as she pulled Lapis up by the arm so that the tips of her shoes trailed listlessly against the ground.

Your hands began moving without you ever having told them to do so. A blur and the robonoid was out of its box and set on the ground, the controller in your hands. You activated it.

A small green light on the robonoid flashed on.

There was a slight second of hesitation.  _God, what am I doing?_

You quickly shook off the hesitation at the sight of Lapis's eyes widening in terror as Jasper pulled her fist further behind her, preparing a blow to her stomach.

The robonoid sped across the grass, causing both Jasper and eventually Lapis to look curiously at the small green sphere barreling towards them. "What is tha--" Jasper was cut off mid-sentence by a torrent of shaving cream spraying her in the face.

Lapis was immediately forgotten, as Jasper rushed both her hands to her face, all the while shouting incoherent curses. She spat much like a cat whose been dropped in a bathtub, clawing at her eyes in pain. It wasn't long before she was lumbering towards the other side of the building, the robonoid it hot pursuit. You dropped the controller as soon as she had disappeared around the corner and ran up to Lapis.

Lazuli's mouth was parted so wide it rivaled her shock-stricken eyes. Other than that, she appeared to be okay for the most part. Sighing, you made your way over to the fallen robonoid and piled it back into its box. Great, it was covered in shaving cream. Which of course had picked up bits of dead grass and ugly clumps of dirt. It would take the rest of the day to clean it all (a tricky process to begin with, as the robonoid wasn't exactly waterproof).

Lapis had crumpled against the wall, still disoriented by what had just happened. Huffing, you went back over to where she slumped against the faded brick.

"Hey," you said awkwardly, thrusting your hand down towards her, "You okay?"

She silently let you pull her to her feet, with only some difficulty on your part due to the height difference. She nodded, keeping her eyes on the ground as she tucked a strand of blue hair behind her ear.

You realized you were still holding her hand, and quickly let it go, dropping yours stiffly to your side.

"I..." she trailed off, still uncertain as to what she should say in response to the whole event, "Peridot, was that your, um, device?"

You nodded. "Yeah, it's uh, my robonoid. It can shoot shaving cream." You dolt, of course she already knew that.

"I noticed," she laughed, a light soothing sound not unlike wind chimes, and one you hadn't heard before. You realized suddenly you'd never heard Lazuli laugh before. She...had a nice laugh. Part of you wanted to hear it more. Another part of you wanted to ignore the first part.

"I haven't seen anything like it...where'd you get it?" she asked, curiously peering into the box.

"I didn't get it from anywhere. I made it in the engineering lab," you said proudly, jabbing your thumb behind you in the general direction of the lab.

Lapis tenderly lifted the sphere, it's cylindrical appendages loosely dangling under it. She flicked a bit of shaving cream from the top. Lazuli brought the robonoid's underside up to eye level, peering curiously at its free-floating legs. "How'd you get them to stay like that?" she inquired.

"Magnets, for the most part. There are some on the bottom too, that help calculate its center of gravity, keep it standing and all that. It uses a solar cell and a rechargeable electric battery to power the magnets. And I can use a controller to move the legs. It's just a prototype, far from perfect, but still rather impressive I must say."

"Can I try driving it?" she asked, looking at you with unguarded excitement that you thought vaguely resembled that of a puppy.

This was what you were worried would happen. People would mess around with your stuff. But her eyes, they were just so innocent and pleading and ugh you weren't going to be able to say no were you.

"Auuuugh fine. But be careful. And the controls are fairly complex, so pay attention when I explain them to you, otherwise you're gonna end up breaking something."

She nodded, breaking into a small closed-mouth smile as she placed the robonoid softly on the ground.

Lapis paid close attention as you explained the basics on how to get the thing to move around, and by the time you'd managed to will yourself to part with your machine, she did an admittedly good job controlling it.

You reluctantly told her as much, and she gave you a grin. Gaining confidence in her control over the device, she suddenly shifted to full speed and raced around the corner of the building, running after it.

It took you a couple seconds to register that Lapis had just made off with your robot, before you were dashing hurriedly after her.

You finally rounded the building, breath ragged to find Lazuli talking with someone.

"--at is that thing? It looks really weird." Whoever they were, some friend or classmate, bent over the robonoid, giving it an intrigued look.

Well, you shouldn't have expected anything different, really.

"Can I have a go next?" they asked excitedly.

And there it was.

You spent the rest of the next day making repairs to the recently waterlogged controller.

* * *

One thing you'd always found kind of funny is how when you unthinkingly save someone from what probably would have been a rather painful situation, you end up becoming something not entirely unlike friends.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fanfiction has been...lagging for lack of a better word.
> 
> Due to multiple complications (and a general lack of motivation) I sort of stopped updating both here and on fanfiction.net. I have started writing again, and hope to post chapters regularly as I have quite a few finished ones stored up.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to align the highschool universe as closely as possible to the official Highschool AU shown in the Crewniverse's episode promo posters. Their physical appearances in the story are essentially the same as those in the posters.


End file.
